Death Valley National Park is one of the most famous National Park in North America. The National Park is split among Nevada and California, with most parts in California. Death Valley National Park is also known to have the lowest point in North America at Bad Water Basin and has excessive heat during the summer time. Other than being hot, Death Valley National Park is a popular place for stargazers since it is known to be the darkest place in North America and has won the Dark Sky award.
We visited Death Valley National Park over the winter holiday as the temperature would not be too high like summer. The entrance fee to Death Valley National Park is 30 dollars for a week. There was not a cheaper option for day use unfortunately. Also, the fee can be collected at the automated paying machine without going to the visitor center. Driving through Death Valley National Park was quite an interesting trip to see pretty much desert on the side of road.
We went to Zabriskie Point the first thing in the morning before the sunrise. The color of the sky was a beauty and the landscape of the badlands was breath taking. We then went to Bad Water Basin to checkout the lowest place in North America. The reflecting surface on the salt flat was unexpectedly amazing!
We then went to Visitor's Center at Furnace Creek to take a break and grab some food to eat. Afterwards, we went to Harmony Borax Work that was only a mile North of Visitor's Center. Harmony Borax Work used to be a factory manufacturing borax and shipped borax to California for use. It has closed down for a long time, but the remain was still there. This would have been a perfect place to take Milky Way photos due to its open sky and many objects could be used as the foreground.
After that, we went to Mesquite Sand Dunes. This was the only place in Death Valley National Park with sand dunes. We have never seen sand dunes before, thus it was a pretty cool experience for us to trek on sand dunes.
The last stop for us at Death Valley is at Dante's View. Dante's View is at the top of the mountain with elevation of nearly 1700m. It can be reached easily via car as there is a road leading up to it. Dante's View overlooks the entire Bad Water Basin of Death Valley. The sunrise here would have been magnificent as well. One thing to note that is the road is very narrow with sharp turns. Thus extra caution is advised.
In general, we loved Death Valley National Park. The water at the Bad Water Basin salt flat that created the reflecting surface was an unexpected pleasant surprise. The only unfortunate park was that the weather was mostly cloudy and we could not see any milky way. Perhaps we will have better luck next time!
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